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ISLAMABAD: Showing his displeasure over the abject performance of various national sports bodies, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday decided to constitute a task force for the revamping of sports sector in the country.

The task force will be headed by Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ehsan Mani.

According to sources Prime Minister, while chairing a meeting on sports here at the Parliament House, expressed his annoyance that despite funds from the government and other national and international sources, the sports federations and sports organizations have failed to deliver.

Pakistan could not win a single gold medal in the recently-held Asian Games in Indonesia where they won only four bronze medals while the hockey team failed to even make the podium.

According to an official statement released by Prime Minister office, the aim is to revamp the whole ambit of sports, from infrastructure to organisational structures and operating systems for introducing merit, transparency and performance criteria.

“It was also decided that the government organizations dealing with sports would also be revamped/re-structured as they too have failed to achieve the purpose for which they were created,” says the statement.

The statement further said that during the meeting the decision to constitute a task force on sports under Ehsan Mani was taken to review the performance of all sports bodies, analyse the efficacy and utilisation of funds received from various sources and suggest administrative reforms for promoting sports at national as well as regional level.

Jamil Ahmed briefed the Prime Minister about the functions of the IPC ministry and performance of various attached departments including the Pakistan Sports Board, Pakistan Cricket Board and some of the non-sports departments that falls under the administrative control of IPC.

While discussing the budgetary allocations of the ministry and various development schemes for promoting sports in the country, the Prime Minister was informed that various important schemes worth billions of rupees were left incomplete since 2008 with little progress on the physical infrastructure.

The Prime Minister directed that all pending schemes should be reviewed in order to ascertain their utility and reasons for their incompletion.

Discussing the performance of various sports federations and associations, it was decided to take on the plethora of sports federations/associations for the spree of poor performances resulting in pathetic outlook of Pakistan sports despite being provided heavy funds from national and international sources, including federal and provincial governments and enjoying tenures for well over a decade.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister also directed that as a first step enhancing sports grounds should be focused to provide opportunity to the youth to manifest their talent and excel in sports. Reviewing the progress of various youth-focussed programs, it was informed that a liability of over Rs1 billion was pending in lieu of payment of stipend to the interns under the National Internship Program.

The Prime Minister was also briefed about the performance of National Paralympic Committee and he appreciated the progress made so far by the National Paralympic Committee.

The Prime Minister directed that initiatives such as National Internship Program should be strengthened and greater opportunities should be created for the young graduated to gain practical training in various fields.

Comments (12) Closed

So many misses from previous govt. really. Was everyone sleeping before or is the data inaccurate which is provided to PM

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Private advisor

Sep 12, 2018 10:13am

I dont see any radical steps to improve thing. I read rather more of the same.

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Mansur Ul Haque

Sep 12, 2018 11:20am

It is unfortunate we follow personalities. Personal liking and disliking matters a lot. We value our differences with people and priority of tackling of issues/ improvement of things takes secondary place. Now it seems all sports matters will be handled by Mani. Najam Sethi has no role to play in the improvement of Sports because of his political differences with Imran.

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Sammy

Sep 12, 2018 12:22pm

I think the PCB is a challenging enough institute as it is, Mani's Attention should not be diverted to 'all other sports'. Put the right people in place for the appropriate sport and get commercial expertise as well. Does Mani really understand the dynamics of Kabaddi, Hockey, Tennis etc??

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karamba

Sep 12, 2018 12:36pm

@Mansur Ul Haque Your own statement contradicts your view with your obvious preference for Sethi who has nothing to do with this and had ample opportunity to do something at his time instead of just cricket. The whole purpose of this is to revamp the whole sports system which is long overdue and not about preferential likes or dislikes.

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faisal

Sep 12, 2018 12:56pm

Nothing is heading in right direction, this government is a bluff.

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BAXAR

Sep 12, 2018 01:50pm

Sports was primarily practiced and improved in schools and colleges. Since all education is privately owned businesses, you cannot expect them to facilitate sports. Sports need space, you build plazas whenever and wherever you see some.

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Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad

Sep 12, 2018 04:23pm

If the hand picked PCB Chief by the PM will also be burdened with extra work of heading the task force to re-do and revamp sports in the country, he might not be able to do justice with both jobs at the same time.

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Ayyaz

Sep 12, 2018 05:36pm

As an example, the Football Stadium in Rawalpindi (near Kaali Tanki) lately received a fund of 6 crore for upgradation.

And this stadium is closed for sports this year waiting for more funds. Could somebody go and check where 6 crore was applied ?

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optimist

Sep 12, 2018 07:47pm

all provinces should be given equal opportunity and equal budget. PCB chairman should notice the conflict of interest when Chief Selector and another advisor were working for Lahore Qalanders and taking salary from them as well. Obviously they will support the players to come into the national team. Why bulk of the officials and selectors are from one province only.

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Zak

Sep 13, 2018 02:32am

‘Showing his displeasure over the abject performance of various national sports bodies, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday decided to constitute a task force for the revamping of sports sector in the country.’

This is what we were looking for. Stellar performances coming in all fields. Stay tuned.